The promise
by laicka
Summary: Jack awake in the little sister sanctuary, but what would he find?


**Disclaimer: I don't own Bioshock**

**this is my first good Jack story, so I hope you people enjoy it!**

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The light was intense and even though he had his eyes closed he could perceived it. There were only two options for that to happen; one, and the most he desire, was that he was laying on his bed in his bedroom with the window open letting all the light entering, meaning that it was noon. Or the second one, and the one he really hoped not to be true, was that he was laying on a bed with a lamp over his head in bloody place in Rapture. He really hoped that that wouldn't be true, that he would be on the surface on his bed laying lazily as the day had already started. He knew there was only a one way to find out what was actually happen, so he opened up his eyes.

Jack covered up his eyes with his arm as the light coming directly from a lamp over his head was blinding him. He turned to his side and blinked several times just to look at the only thing he didn't want to see. Rapture, there he was in the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, in a bloody city that had been forsake by God or anything, even the same Devil had forsaken that cursed place as it was worse than hell itself. He had wished and hoped that all those things he had done would had been a terrible and bloody nightmare, caused by drinking too much the previous night. He had killed so many people, even if they were truly insane it hadn't been an excuse to kill them, yet Atlas had told him more than once that it was them or him. Atlas. That bloody bastard that man that had fooled him into doing his binding without Jack knowing what was going on. Jack had truly trust the man, he had seized to him, to the idea of helping out a man whose family had been torn apart from him, that was desperate to get his way out of that place as much as he was. Yet there had always been some things unsettling regarding Atlas, the fact that every time Jack had the decision to either rescue a Little Sister the man by the radio had urged him to harvest her, to get as much ADAM as he could, that he would need it. that had always made Jack wondered what was wrong with the man, he had asked 'Atlas' once how old his son was to what the man had said that seven, which ironically was the same age that those poor little girls, so asking him to killed them had always made Jack wonder why a man with a child want him to kill the other ones. But after the man had proved to be a simple fraud, Jack had understood many things regarding him.

But that was no time to think about it, he needed to know where he was and what had happen. He passed his hand over his face and felt a couple of bandages on it. He touched them, then he realized that his hand and arm were also bandage. He rose slowly from the bed and looked around, to see several drawing made in the ground. A small crayon rolled to where he was he took it and saw how a little girl, in a dirty dress approached him with caution, Jack extended his arm and offered the girl the crayon, she took it with a quick movement and returned quickly where the other girls where. He rose the sight and looked at a woman that couldn't be more than forty, she had brown her and bright green eyes, he knew her be sight at the same moment he saw her.

Even though Jack had only seen Brigid Tenenbaum one time before, he knew she was the woman that had been helping him after he had rescued all the girls he had come across.

"Brigid… Bigrid Tenenbaum?" he asked in a hoarse voice.

The woman nodded as she walked forward. "Ja," she answered and smoke from the cigarette that she was holding.

Jack stared at her for a couple of seconds, she was wearing what seemed to be dress of dark pink color. Over it a lab coat from which a pistol could be seen, she had her hair held back in a lousy ponytail. She walked forward and stopped a few meters away from him.

"You should rest a bit more mein junge, before you tried anything," she said.

"What happen?" he asked.

"You were betrayed by Fontaine," she said, to what Jack nodded. "I send one of the girls you save to help you out of the office where you were imprisoned but as you made your way toward the safe house, well the vent broke under your weight and you hurt yourself and were knocked out. I was able to rescue and bring you back here. Also I was able to undo some of the mental control Fontaine had over you. Though you will have to search for a cure to make sure he isn't able to control you any further. But right now you should rest, you had gone through so much and most be very tired, and it would help your wounds heal better, so rest a bit mein junge."

Jack looked at her and nodded, he laid on the bed and as she made her way toward the small office, he looked at Tenenbaum and called behind her.

"Where is the switch to turn this off?"

"Right next to you," she said out loud and entered her office.

Jack reached for the switch and turn off the lamp. He rolled to his side and saw the Little Sisters that were drawing not far from where he was. He smiled softly at the girls, he was glad that they were alive and safe. As Jack looked at them he wondered how difficult it would be to actually reach Fontaine, would the man waiting for him? And if so, would he be preparing himself? Jack didn't want to think about that anymore. He had barely escape from what could be consider his first encounter with the conman, and it had been with the help of the little girls that were there, those poor girls that he had rescue from that cursed city. He wondered if he had done right thing, rescuing them, had it really been the right thing to do? He knew that killing them out of mercy wouldn't have prove to be the right decision either. But maybe it would have been more human to kill them, they really didn't have anything left or anyone. Jack was pretty sure that those poor girls were all alone. That their parents would be dead, either that they had been killed by a Big Daddy as he had heard in constants Audio Diaries that were spoke by heartbroken fathers and mothers that tried to reach their daughters or maybe he had even killed them as they roam the chaotic and fallen corridors of that cursed city or maybe they were still out there but had been drive crazy by the ADAM and even if the girl would be able to recognized them they would killed her in search of ADAM.

He just gave a sigh and decided not to think anymore in that, since thinking in the families of those girls make him realized that he didn't have any at all, he wondered what would he found if he ever reached the surface, would he found the farm that some memories told him he had grow up? Or maybe he would found out a total and different place? He suddenly heard a soft noise, it was a music box, he turned and looked at the girls that were near him. They were a group of four girls, one blond, two dark hair and one light brown hair. Just as he looked at the girls the music box stopped playing and clearly a noise that indicated that something broke was heard.

"Play it again!" said one of the girls.

The blond girl winded up the music box that started playing again but suddenly made a strange noise and didn't play anymore. They all looked disappointed and began complaining softly that the only good thing that they had had broke down. Jack didn't knew why but suddenly he rose from his bed and walked toward the group of girls, as he approached them he recognized them, he had save each of them. The light brown hair, she had been the first girl he had save, back in Medical Pavillion, one of the dark hair ones, he had found her in McDonagh Tavern, he had thought that she could be Marsha but seeing the picture of the girl later, he realized that she wasn't the girl of the dead couple in one of the rooms of the tavern, the blond one, he had encounter her in Arcadia and she had tried to escape from him and tried to kicked him while she had been a Little Sister, the last brunette he had found her in Hephaestus. He reached them and bent to their level.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked them.

The four girls looked at him, one of the girls fold back while the others simply stared back at him.

"Our music box broke," said suddenly the blond.

"Can I see it?" he asked. The light brown hair girl took the box and then handed it to Jack. "Thank you," he said smiling at the girls. He turned it around and shook it softly, making the girl that had fold back to move forward and tried to stop him. "It seems as if something is broken or got loose if I had a screwdriver I could fix it up for you, of course if you want me to do that."

The girls nodded at each other and then looked at Jack. "Yes please," said the blond one. "Sally would you go and ask mama Tenenbaum if she has a screwdriver?"

One of the brunettes nodded and rose and went to the doctor's office. "I'm Rachel," said the blond girl. "She is Debora," she said pointing to the other brunette. "And she is Catherine," she pointed to the light brown hair girl.

"I'm Jack," he said as he pressed his hand against his chest.

"Nice to meet you Mister Jack," said Debora.

Jack smiled at the girls, then Sally returned with the screwdriver and handed it to Jack. He walked toward a small table sat down, he unscrewed the box and looked at it, there were a few couple of broken pieces. He looked around and saw another music box lying around.

"Rachel love, would you bring me that box?" he asked.

"It's broken it doesn't work," she said as she reached for it and handed it over.

"Yes, but maybe it will help me to arrange your music box," he said as he unscrewed the other box.

To Jack's luck the pieces he needed were intact but most of the box was really rusty, probably it had been lying under the sea water and was so oxidized. He took the pieces he needed and started repairing the music box that the girls had been listening to. It took him a long time to get all the pieces where they should be going, it wasn't that arranging a music box was more complicated than hacking a turrent or camera, but to hack those devices he didn't need tweezers like with the music box. As it required extreme care to handle the small and delicate pieces of the box. He even clean up some of the pieces, he looked at it and quickly made a test to see that the music box was indeed working. When all the mechanisms were moving as they should, he made the final adjustment and closed the box. Then he handled it over to the girls.

"There it is, it should play again," he said as he gave it to Debora. "Why don't you try it?"

The girls nodded and Debora winded up the box. At first just a couple of notes were heard and then nothing, but then the music filled up the whole room, the rest of the girls that were in the room approached and looked at the box and then at Jack, but the four girls looked at him happily and each of them hugged him in gratitude.

"Come Mister Jack," said Catherine. "You should listen to it, come and play with us," Jack walked with her and sat next to them as the four girls where simply hearing the music that came from the box. It was a bit sad but yet a calm tune, Jack wondered if the girls had heard it over and over until they had fallen asleep with it.

Jack spent the rest of the time he stayed awake with the four girls, as the others didn't approach him or simply smiled timidly at him. When he went to sleep the girls followed him and asked him if they could sleep with him, he told them that it was alright. Rachel slept to his right, Debora to his left and Sally over his chest, while Catherine slept right next to Rachel. Jack spend two more days in the sanctuary of Little Sister's that Tenenbaum had, he spend most of his time with the four girls that he had save. He had also spent time talking to Tenenbaum, she had told him that Fontaine knew that he was still alive, and that he needed to go and finished his business with him, to what Jack agreed, the faster he got rid of the man the faster he would be able to get out of Rapture.

Jack made his way through the sanctuary without awaking any of the girls as they had been sleeping again with him, Tenenbaum was waiting for him in the upper part of it.

"Thanks for everything doctor," he said as he extended his hand.

"No, thank you Jack, for showing the girls that there is some light in these dark moments. I won't forget it and not will them. Still look out for Fontaine, mein junge," she said.

"Are you leaving?" said Rachel, making both Jack and Tenenbaum looked up at the four girls that were looking straight at them.

"I have to, I have something I have to take care of," he said.

"Will you be coming back?" asked Sally.

"Yes, I will be coming back."

"Promise it!" said Catherine.

"I promise it."

"Promise it with the pinky!" said Debora as she raised her hand and extended the little finger.

Jack looked at the four girls with surprise and saw the determination in their faces, he smiled at them, and took Debora's pinky and crossed it with his.

"It's a promise, I will come back for you girls," he said smiling.

Then he proceeded to leave the sanctuary, the four girls looked at the door and remained there for a couple of minutes, Tenenbaum looked at them and smiled with reassurance. Then she walked away.

Jack was tired and he was dying slowly, he could only curse Fontaine in silence, that bloody bastard. A part of him was really tired and just wanted to lay down and be over with it, to let his body give in to the heart attacks, and rest in peace. As he found a small place to rest and maybe even give up, he heard a soft noise, it was a tune, he opened up his eyes and walked toward the sound. It was a music box that some splicer most had winded up. Jack heard the whole tune and then started walking again, he needed to find the cure, the lot 121, he couldn't give up, no, he couldn't. He had made a promise and he had decided that he would be keeping it, because after all no one breaks a promise if they made it with the pinky, and he wasn't going to be the first one to do that.


End file.
